My belief from your brief description is that the employee fears change, change being trying something new. It sounds like he is good with what he does and maybe a tad comfortable, but maybe not very confident in his abilities. When confronted with new projects he becomes fearful of not meeting his self-standards of performance and possibly making a mistake, which would leave him (he believes) open to ridicule. These would be my questions:

• Does the company's culture allow for mistakes to be made without repercussion, since learning from mistakes is often better than learning from success?
• Does this employee only have a few specific tasks that he does over and over? If so, he may be proficient at those specific things but will need time and encouragement to master other tasks, as well.
• Does the company have a program in place to help employees deal with change? Check out Dr. Spencer Johnson's website http://www.whomovedmycheese.com/ for his program on helping your employees and managers deal with change in the workplace.

It is not always a "bad" attitude per se that makes employees act as you described. It is usually fear or something fear-based. Find out what the employee fears and you find the key to changing his attitude. _______________________________________________________ "Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it doth prosper, none dare call it treason." -Sir John Harrington, 1561-1612